Quality improvement in early years settings in Hong Kong and England |
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| Authors: | Dora Ho Verity Campbell-Barr Caroline Leeson |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Early Childhood Education , Hong Kong Institute of Education , Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China;2. Early Childhood Studies Team, Faculty of Education , University of Plymouth , Plymouth, UK |
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| Abstract: | With a growing awareness of the importance of early childhood education, the governments of Hong Kong and England have both increased investment through providing fee assistance to parents for buying services and providing funding to providers for offering ‘free’ places, respectively. Alongside the increased funding of early childhood education, a heightened interest in the quality of early years settings has arisen. This paper aims to develop a framework for comparative studies by addressing the similarities and differences in quality improvement of both systems. Three key issues are discussed: relevance of the quality criteria for assessment, interpretations of the quality improvement mechanism and its use in guiding practice, and the influence of contextual factors in terms of stakeholders' views of the quality process. It is argued that these key issues are fundamental to a framework for understanding different sociocultural contexts and dynamics in shaping the quality improvement of early childhood education. |
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| Keywords: | early years education quality improvement Hong Kong England |
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